Environmental contamination caused by the use of unsuitable septic tanks led representatives of four villages of the Araribá Indigenous Land, in Avaí, São Paulo, to travel for over 200 kilometers to São Carlos and learn about the rural basic sanitation system developed by Embrapa Instrumentation. The group arrived at São João farm, Embrapa's partner in basic sanitation, on Wednesday (12), hoping to take back a solution for the serious issue of sanitation that affects the 700 inhabitants of the villages of Kopenoti, Ekerua, Ninuendaju and Teregua. Adorned with face painting, headdresses and neck adornments, men, women and youth of the Tupi-Guarani, Terena and Caingang ethnicities spent the day receiving explanations and guidance about the systems installed on the site from farmer Flávio Marchesin and from Embrapa Instrumentation researcher Wilson Tadeu Lopes da Silva. “The idea of looking into Embrapa's sanitation technologies set up in the São João farm stemmed from the need to bring to the villages a treatment system that would preserve the soil, would not contaminate water resources and improve the quality of life of the population,” said chief Edenilson Sebastião, better known as Chicão Terena. The chief's concern is because the current treatment system in the villages is saturated, releasing sanitary sewage and contaminating the soil and water resources. Regiane Rodrigues, a nurse at the Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health (SESAI), said she is committed to building a partnership to solve the problem of the leaks from the current pits. “I can already envisage the elaboration of a project with Embrapa to solve the problem,” she stated. The 1,930-hectare-large Araribá Indigenous Land is located in the Rio Batalha Environmental Protection Area (APA), whose manager, Fundação Florestal engineer Claudia Reis, intermediated the visit. Representatives of two other APAs, Corumbataí and Tejupá, in addition to Arlene Fontes Mourão, from the Tapajós indigenous village in São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Amazonas, accompanied the visit of the indigenous people, with support from the Avaí city administration. The Embrapa System For the Embrapa Instrumentation researcher Wilson Tadeu Lopes da Silva, who is responsible for the set of sanitation technologies – Biodigestive Septic Tank, Filter Garden and Embrapa Chlorinator–, interacting with the indigenous people was a learning experience. “This is the first time I have met native peoples for an exchange of experiences. It is an honor to welcome them,” Wilson Tadeu said. Before the indigenous visitors saw the technological solutions installed at the São João farm, the researcher presented characteristics of each one, and the negative and positive impacts of the lack or of the adoption of the rural basic sanitation system for human health and the environment. "Rural basic sanitation technologies can be of use for native peoples and traditional communities, provided that both technical characteristics and their cultural traditions are observed. The visit allowed us to get closer to these communities, with a healthy exchange of information and possible developments”, Silva adds. Chicão Terena said there is a sense of urgency and believes that the first experiments of the Biodigestive Septic Tanks, which treats sanitary sewage, will be installed soon. “We are taking an important step today in the pursuit of knowledge. We want to embrace it, make it work, and start a new project,” the chief said. Given the urgency of building sustainable sewage treatment systems in the villages, the indigenous representatives showed interest in the online free course “Rural basic sanitation”, launched on March 15 by the Embrapa platform e-Campo. The course aims to train multiplier agents in rural basic sanitation technologies, so that more people have the opportunity to know about, adopt and benefit from the systems in their properties, as Flávio Marchesin did. Click here to sign up for the course as well.